Shada [AUDIO/2003.11.21]

★★★★★

  Something I've learned over the years enjoying Doctor Who is that the best way of immersing yourself in the mythos (i.e. the show, the expanded universe, the spinoffs, etc.) is to not give a fig about "canon". The word simply does not exist in Who, and is intrinsically incompatible; dozens of expanded universe stories contradict one another in terms of their treatment of legacy characters, their adventures in history, the list could go on. Even the new television series sometimes contradict their classic counterparts! No, the sooner you abandon the idea to try and set up a fixed timeline for all these crazy adventures, the better. Doctor Who is special because of its unlimited possibilities, after all — it's in the nature of the franchise to do anything and everything whenever a writer wants. So don't worry about the Big Finish version of Shada "not making sense" in light of the recent TV/animated Shada... just listen to this and have fun!

  Back to the matter at hand, it is my opinion that this is the best version of Shada bar none. I love all the Shadas anyway — Douglas Adams is a man who needs no introduction among science fiction fanatics, and his involvement with the show led to some of the most busting-at-the-seams imaginative serials the mythos has ever been blessed with. Shada is perhaps the most Adamsesque of them all: an ancient Time Lord book held by an ancient Time Lord living in Cambridge University, an evil powerhungry madman and his logic-reliant spaceship AI, two postgraduate students and an incredible amount of tea. In the midst of it all, we have Paul McGann giving us a particularly brilliant portrayal; he battles might with words, he matches the eccentricity of Professor Chronotis, and he's at his most charm offensive through the entire six-parter. It's astonishing how he manages to take on Tom Baker's role with such ease and make the dialogue his own, put his own Doctor's spin on things. No wonder the two were paired for The Light at the End!

  The epic church organ score that plays throughout Shada is brilliant, and Lalla Ward and John Leeson are as wonderful as ever. This is one of those Big Finish plays where you can literally see the various wonderful and impossible locations the adventure takes you (and not just because this was broadcast in webcast format), with the marriage of Adams' peerless imagination and ambition and Big Finish's high-standard sound and music design. This feels special, it feels like a giant event and, to all intents and purposes, it is. A Douglas Adams script brought to life — what I would do to see it happen once again.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  Sean Biggerstaff is such a cutie. It's one of those casting decisions that makes me giggle everytime I think of it... Oliver Wood from the Harry Potter movies in Doctor Who, an Eighth Doctor story based on a Douglas Adams script, no less! His Chris Parsons is one of the highlights, definitely — adorable all the way through. I wouldn't have minded a few more adventures with Chris and Clare.